Ten Days - France, Mont St Michel, Worrall Traveler Days (WTRD 6-7), France Day 5-6 of 10

Good Bye Nonante - Off to Mont St Michel with a stop in Bayeux. 

We leave our farmhouse accommodation and our new friend Chantel today after breakfast.  Our first stop is Bayeux to visit what known as a historical tapestry.  In reality the tapestry is really an embroidery of the tale from William the Conquerer's point of view how he became the King of England.

The story is embroidered on  a piece of linen that is nearly 70 meters long and 50 centimeters wide.  Since most of the population was illiterate, the saga was retold in embroidered drawings of how the Duke of Normandy became the King of England. The full story can be found here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry.  It is an intriguing story.

Shortly before noon we headed towards Mont Saint Michel and our new lodgings at a Bed and Breakfast which was a two hour drive away in a small farm village, but close to Mount Saint Michel. It has been another misty day, and as we approach the island is shrouded in a veil of fog.

Our hosts are from Martinique and our new accommodations have a Caribbean feel about them.

We spent a leisurely afternoon catching up on mail and news from home. And then walked a few blocks in to town

Curried Salmon

Lamb Pot

for dinner and to watch the sun set near Mount St. Michel.

Dinner was excellent.  The sunset was beautiful, and somewhere from the AirBnB to the Restaurant, I lost my glasses.  They are not in our room, my person, our car. I had them on prior to leaving for our walk to town.  I think I wore them out the door, took them off somewhere along the way to see better lighting through the camera lens (they darken in the sun), but I usually stick them in my pocket.  Well, not in my pocket, not in our room, not found in the restaurant.  We have retraced steps three times.  It's a mystery!  I should love a mystery....but not this one.  I have a spare pair, but these were my best Rx.  Oh well.

Mont St. Michel, June 13, 2018 - Happy Birthday Abby!

Today is our daughter's birthday.  Happy Birthday Ab.  We miss you.
We are treated to a wonderful breakfast of eggs from chicken nest to frying pan, waffles, flan, yogurt,  fruit, fresh bread, butter and jam, and coffee.

Fortified we decide to walk from our accommodation to the top of the Abbey.  We leave the car and do not drive to the parking lot.  We do not take the free shuttle across the causeway.  We walk and enjoy the bird songs, the fresh morning air and most of all the sun which we see for the first time in several days. 

The tide has gone out and the abbey and cathedral fortress built on an island rock is now surrounded by mud and sand flats....some of it quick sand.  Tourists are advised that if they walk to the abbey not using the causeway to go with a guide who is equipped with ropes in case one starts to sink. 

Depicted in the tapestry we saw yesterday morning, the horses and soldiers from England who  tried to capture the Abbey discovered the hard way that no tide, did not mean an easy ride across the mud flat moat.   Several horses and men stumbled, sank, and died while in battle on these flats. Today, rescue teams standby with a tractor.  We actually saw a maintenance vehicle being pulled from the mud.  School groups and tourist love to go out on the flats and wiggle their toes in the mud.... but not us.

The Abbey was started in 708 AD.  It was added on and modified mostly between the 1000's and 1400's.  Because of it's location, rocky base, and difficult accessibility slowed trial and error construction.  The same characteristics that hindered construction also allowed the structure and its occupants the ability to withstand every attack during the 100 year war.  St. Michel is the patron saint of war...quite fitting.  Modern day soldiers watched over the Abbey.

Bells rang calling worshipers inside for mass.   

We attended the mid-day mass. Flute music and the beautiful voices of the nuns echoed through the church.  We wandered through the different rooms of the Abbey with an English headset.  Enjoy the photos.

The Cloister

The Refrectory

Guest Hall

Another Great Hall Intended for Knights to Meet....but they never did.

One of the most interesting aspects of the monastery was how they brought supplies up the many floors.  From the outside, visitors can see a steep ramp with a heavy rope.  Supplies were loaded on to a sled and pulled up the incline on the outside of the monastery.  A mammoth "hamster wheel" was built that held eight walking men trudging up the sides of the wheel to raise the supply load up the ramp.  Very ingenious.

As the crowds grew heavy,

we ducked into the White Sheep terrace restaurant for a late lunch around 3:30.  I had smoked salmon with cream fresh and chive crepe, and Russ had a rack of lamb.  We felt no guilt with all of the walking and stair climbing we did.  When we returned back at our AirBnB, the Fit bit said we had traveled 16,767 steps, 7.36 miles, expended, 2,407 calories, and had gone up or down 36 flights of stairs.

We leave tomorrow for Camembert for one night and some cheese, then back to Bouffemont, and Paris on Friday.  We are then off to Frankfurt where we will catch a train to Switzerland on Sunday for a week of hiking in the Alps.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's, Ardevon, France.